RS

MEMBER DIARY

Arab Spring Will Trigger Ramabomb Explosions

With the start of Ramabomb, the Free World should increase its security measures in light of Mohamadans’ habit of escalating their usual level of violence to higher frequencies with more deadly consequences. The jihadist bombing of a bus of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last week foreshadows the renewed tradition of savagery during the month considered sacred on the Islamic calendar. While bracing themselves for the inevitable jihadist attacks, civilized people should also take stock of events since Ramabomb ended last year. Outbreaks of jihadist insurgencies have led to the fall of a handful of oppressive though not explicitly theocratic regimes within the Islamic bloc. In Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt & Libya, autocratic governments have collapsed in the face of an Islamic tsunami. Future waves of this storm threaten to devastate Syria, Irak, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Algeria.

The authoritarian yet not overtly Islamic regimes have given way to power grabs by Islamists. The most populous nation in the Middle East, Egypt, has succumbed to the Moslem Brotherhood. The appearance of a fully enshrouded wife of the newly elected president serves as a harbinger of further oppression of the perennial targets of Islamists: women and non-Mohamadans. Jihadis have ramped up attacks on churches and the Christians inside them since the collapse of Mubarak’s government.

The Free World has no reason to favor blindly the widespread discontent leading to toppling of governments throughout the Middle East. The unrest in Iran appeared on its face as opposition to the Islamic oligarchy. However, the demonstrators were not demanding freedom from the foreign ideology imposed on their ancestors by Arab armies centuries ago. The crowds did not storm and destroy mosks, madrassas or other edifices of Islam as Islamists did to symbols of Persian civilization and modernity in general erected during the Shah’s reign. They merely demanded the ouster of the current occupants in the seats of power. Calls for a less brutal dictator in Iran do not equate to desire for liberty.

If someone needs a concrete example of how a country can devolve to a full- fledged totalitarian state with Islam as its sole basis for power, a look at Iran over the course of the past 35 yrs is required. Iran, like Egypt, is a highly populated and predominantly Islamic nation. However, a significant presence of other ideologies has existed in these two places. Both were headed by an autocratic who was outwardly friendly toward the Free World. Sadly, in the cases of these two significant members of the Islamic bloc, the United States’ governmental policy turned against its erstwhile allies against Islamists in favor of rebels who soon displayed their Islamist loyalties.

Some glimmers of hope have occurred despite rising tide of Islamization. The secession of South Sudan struck a blow for freedom against the cesspool of merciless jihadis ruling the northern portion of Sudan. The National Forces Alliance, a political party seemingly non-Islamist, won a plurality of parliamentary seats. The NFA grabbed more than twice as many seats in elections this month than did the Moslem Brotherhood’s party and another Islamist group in the forefront of toppling Kadaffy’s regime. Moncef Marzouki, the newly elected president of Tunisia, has openly pushed for a secular republic without a constitution not based on Sharia. In Algeria, the National Liberation Front, a mostly non-Islamist party comprised of supporters of the military-run regime, secured nearly a majority of seats in parliamentary elections in May.

Unfortunately, even apparent victories against the further encroachment of Islam seem tenuous or fleeting. The fragile South Sudanese government will not be able to hold off continued attacks by jihadis without significant aid, military and humanitarian, from the Free World. Also, the National Forces Alliance in Libya, despite the reputation as an alternative to Islamic parties, has stated its desire for Sharia to serve as the basis of the country’s laws. Marzouki’s hopes for a secular republic depend on the sizeable group of Tunisian Islamists’ refraining from seizing power then imposing a theocracy when future elections go against their wishes. Algerian elections have had weak turnouts so the results provide little legitimacy for the non-theocratic government among the populace. Throughout history, Islamists have not graciously accepted others’ refusal to submit to their totalitarian ideology and cede power to those rejecting Islamic supremacy. No one should remain under any delusions that any country within the Islamic bloc will transition smoothly or rapidly into a republic dedicated to economic and social freedoms.